Smashed Birds
by fredricklynn
Summary: Sisters Rachel and Rio haven't always had the best life. After a little problem that left Rio in the hospital for six months, the two decide to move away and start anew. It will be hard work, but the two are determined to make things right. Will this journey heal their long ago severed relationship or will their secrets destroy them forever?


**A/N: Hello, friends! Here is my latest fanfiction I have been working on. I just want to warn everyone about some of the coarse language used. If you really don't like curse words, I wouldn't recommend reading my story. I'm sorry! That's just how I write. I feel as though it adds a more realistic feel to the story. Especially on Rio's part, because of how rough she is. Anyways, that's really all I had to say. If you liked the story, please leave a review for me! I love hearing what people have to say about my stories. Thank you for taking the time to read! **

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><p>Building Something Out of Nothing<p>

"Yes, Mother, I'm going to pick her up _right now_." Rachel sighed as she slammed on her breaks for a red light, causing her morning coffee to slosh out of her little foam cup. "_Damn."_ She cursed under her breath, forgetting about how strict her mother was with her, even at the age of twenty-two, about her cussing. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…No, I told you I'm on the way to get her…_Mother,_ I know where she's at…Yes, yes, left turn at maple street. Big white building…Well tell them I'll be there in five minutes, I'm not a damn taxi cab service! …I'm sorry, yes, yes, I know." She rolled her eyes as her mother continued to chastise her for her cussing, and then for being late to pick her sister up. It's always like this, and Rachel detests is. Her mother still treats her like she's a child, even though she's way past that age, and when she's not doing that, she's placing Rachel on top of this pedestal- as the poster child for being the "good one" the "not a mess up". Lord help her if she were to ever fall off of it, but she guesses that _someone_ has to the be _good_ child, and it certainly wasn't going to be her sister. "I have to go now, Mom…We'll call you once we get there…Of course, I won't forget. I never do…Yes…Yes…No? ...What?...Ugh, whatever you say, but you know she won't listen to me…Okay, love you too, bye." Rachel pressed the little, red end call button, sighing as she pulled up into the parking lot of the clinic her sister was staying at.

Groaning, Rachel rested her head against her steering wheel. She knew that it wasn't exactly her sister's fault that she had somehow managed to mess up her entire life. Mostly, it was the addictive personality she had unfortunately inherited from her father, who had gambled away their family's money at casinos before pulling the trigger to a stolen handgun in the old, abandoned pottery factory. Bless whoever turned her sister in for stolen narcotics when they did, because Rachel _knew_ that someday, if something wasn't done, they'd wind up getting a phone call similar to the one they got eight years ago.

Unlike her sister, Rachel cared too much about what others thought about her, and as she got out of her tiny, beat-up Volkswagen, she smoothed out her business-like outfit. It was a dreary kind of spring morning, the type of day you get after having a storm the night before, but with the promise of rain later on in the day. If it had been any other day, Rachel probably would have been found in some coffee shop, reading a romance novel and drinking lemon-tea. It would be perfectly wonderful (and terribly, terribly predictable), and maybe she'd even find romance with the tall, handsome man sitting across the way, but, sadly, that's not how the day was to play out. She would have to pick her delinquent sister up from the rehabilitation center attached to the local clinic, drive to the middle of nowhere, and settle herself into a new life. With her sister- who had just gotten busted for drug abuse. Six months ago. _What on Earth is Mother even thinking? Getting fresh air and a 'new' start isn't going to help her any, and it will probably just make things worse. She just wants to dump the responsibilities off on me again, because I'm 'the good daughter' who 'knows how to take care of people'. It's complete and utter bull-_

"Hello, how can I help you today?" The nurse working the front desk asked as Rachel made her way into the small, front room. She had somehow gotten lost in her thoughts and didn't even notice when she had started to make her way into the clinic. The first thing she noticed was white. Everything was the pristine, blinding color known as white. Even if it could be considered a color, because white is actually the lack of color, but then again, it is simultaneously the combination of all colors. As if anything could be more confusing than that: _White is simultaneously the lack of color and a combination of every single color…_

It was absolutely nauseating being in there, and she could feel the judgmental gazes of the nurses passing by burn a hole into her skull. They must've known she was coming to pick her sister up, because they all seemed to be lingering around, watching her, evaluating her appearance. Rachel stood up straighter, trying to brush the looks off, but unable to fully get them out of her head. She could practically hear their thoughts, and they weren't good ones.

"Yes, I'm here to pick up my sister. Her name is Rio Veronesi," Rachel smiled pleasantly as the nurse typed her sister's name into the computer, noting the obvious twitch in the nurse's eyebrow and the sassy, overly loud clicking of the keyboard. _Oh shit, don't tell me she's already racked up a record here…_

"Ah, yes, she's in the recreation room today. If you will follow me, I'll take you to go get her." The nurse hopped off her stool and scurried around to the front to lead Rachel to wherever her sister was at. _Dear God, if there is anyone up there, please just let me get my sister out of here without any troubles._ As the two rounded the corner at the end of a long hallway, there was some rather loud shouting coming from behind a closed door with the sign 'Recreation Room' hanging on it. _Please, I'm begging you; don't let my sister be involved in this._

"You listen here you little twerp, if you think you're going to sit here and mock me, then you have another thing comin'!" A shrill voice screeched from behind the two grey doors, and as the nurse opened the door, they revealed an alarmingly skinny young woman screaming as she leaned over the table to get into a shorter girl's face. _Dear Lord, thank you!_

"I'm not mocking you; I'm simply stating the facts." The shorter girl replied. Her voice wasn't as raspy as it used to be, but it wasn't completely healed either, so Rachel recognized it immediately as her sister Rio's, _maybe I spoke too soon…_Rachel groaned, placing her hand to her head,

"BAGEL IS NOT AN INSULT!" The tall girl screeched, as Rio laughed manically,

"Then why are you getting so offended? You uneducated goose penis," Without hesitation, the taller girl lunged at her throat, hands ready to choke, but they never reached their destination. A large, buff man in a nurses' uniform grabbed her from behind and attempted to calm her down. Rio stood up, flipping her short, black pixie-like hair, "Let me explain this to you, since you're too simple minded to understand it on your own. Words only have meaning because we give them a meaning." She walked over and picked up an apple juice carton, "Why is juice called juice? For now on, this is no longer _juice, _but instead it will be called a _blique_. The content of the carton stays the same, but the name is different."

"Just shut up already no one actually cares!" The tall girl seethed through gritted teeth, head pushed down on the table, "No one _ever _cares about what you have to say, you pretentious piece of shit!"

"Oh? I'm surprised you even know what the word pretentious means, Claire." Rio smirked, continuing with her little school lesson, "If I use the word bagel in a derogatory tone enough times, it's going to be perceived as a derogatory term, and no longer a food item. Think about what bitch actually means- a female dog. Words are relative. Nothing has meaning, but we give them a meaning, because without it, there would be chaos." Rio ended her long rant and crossed her arms, obviously pleased with herself.

"You're insane." The girl, Claire, spat as the man hauled her away to who knows where. Rachel cleared her throat and her sister turned in surprise, as she didn't notice when her and the other nurse had entered the room.

"Ah, Rachel, my lovely sister, how nice to see you again!" Rio rolled her eyes in slight annoyance, smirking at the displeasure in Rachel's face.

During the entire argument, Rachel had been assessing the appearance of her older sister, and she wasn't too happy about what she saw. Even after six months of intense therapy and rehabilitation, Rio was still way too skinny to be healthy, and Rachel wondered if the nurses had been watching the amount of food she'd been eating. Rio also had her full sleeves of tattoos exposed for the world to see, another thing Rachel wasn't wild about, but had to learn to deal with.

"You're a bit pale, have you been outside recently? Have you been eating alright? You need to be careful and stop starting nonsense arguments with people." Rachel began to fret after embracing her sister in a bone crushing hug. Rio scoffed in annoyance,

"Wow, you don't waste any time do ya?" She ran a hand through her hair and rolled her eyes, "Let's just get out of here." Rio slung a small duffle bag over her shoulder and shuffled her sister over to the door to leave. "This place is an absolute nightmare."

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><p>Rio slumped into the passenger seat of her sister's rusty old car, propping her feet up on the dashboard, which immediately got her "<em>tsked"<em> by Rachel.

"Honestly, was that fight in there really necessary?" She sighed, pulling out of the parking lot. Rio smirked,

"Nothing's necessary."

"Don't start with me on that crap. Why can't you ever act normal?" Rachel shook her head, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

"Why can't you just act like a sister and not a mother?" Rio sat up straight, fixing her seatbelt to not be choking her. "You haven't visited me in three months, but you immediately try to pick a fight." Her sister was silent for awhile as they turned off onto a highway. She never wanted to talk to Rio, not for real at least. It was always painful and nine times out of ten ended up in a full on screaming match. Nothing had been the same between the two sisters, well, not for eight years at least.

Everyone deals with pain in different ways, and for the two of them, well, they just happened to deal with it very, very differently. Rio knew this, and that's why she always tried to keep an open mind, but her sister took everything too seriously. She was one of those play-by-the-rules-kinds of people while Rio was more or less…not.

"So are you going to tell me where we're going or nah?" Rio shook her head, staring out the window. It was a busy morning out in the city, but they were headed to the outskirts.

"Well, it's kind of a long story." Rachel grimaced,

"I'm going to assume we have time."

"Do you remember going to that farm when we were little?" Rio nodded in response, "Well, that's where we're going."

"PpPfffpfftttt! What? Why?" Rio laughed, looking over to see her sister smiling a bit.

"Mom thinks it would be good for us to get some fresh air and get away from the city life."

"You've got to be _kidding_ me." Rio shook her head, "She _knows_ that you can still find drugs out in the middle of nowhere, right? Even if I did relapse, it wouldn't be hard. Shipping us off to bum-fuck-Egypt isn't going to prevent anything."

"Well, maybe if you didn't have this problem in the first place, we wouldn't be in this situation now would we?" Rachel sighed for the thousandth time that day, glancing over at her sister who was blatantly avoiding eye contact. The two haven't had the best relationship these past few months, and whenever they were together nothing ever ended well. Rio had a serious problem, and it was Rachel who made the decision to send her to a rehabilitation center. Not her mother.

"Don't you have some fancy lawyer job?" Rio asked, obviously turning the subject off of her. Biting her lip, Rachel stayed silent for a bit too long. "Did you lose it?"

"I quit, actually. Let's not talk about this."

"Right, okay, it's perfectly fine to talk about _my_ problems and about how _I_ fu-"

"RIO! _Language, please_! Also, you know it's not like that."

"Yeah? Well how _is_ it then?"

"I'm _not_ going to deal with this right now." Rachel gripped the steering wheel tighter than before, causing her knuckles to turn white.

"We're going to have to deal with it sometime, so why don't you just tell me now? Huh?" Rio leaned over the center console in the car, getting close to her sister's face. "Were you stressed out? Depressed? Anxious? Is that why you stopped visiting me? How would you feel if I left you for dead in some rehab center? Alone…scared…all those people you could potentially piss off…"

"_Shut up!_ We're not talking about it, okay? So _please_, be quiet, because we've got a long drive ahead of us and I am not about to spend it in a screaming match with my delinquent sister!" Rachel's voice cracked in anger, surprising both of them. Rio slumped back down into her own seat, pulling out a set of large headphones from her bag and turning on the loudest, heaviest music she owned.

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><p>"Ah, no! No, no, no…" Rachel groaned as her car began to make spittering and sputtering noises after just coming back from a lunch break. "Don't quit on me now! We're almost there…"<p>

"I told you we should've just waited to get to town to eat." Rio rolled her eyes, sighing as she stepped back out of the car.

"Oh, so this is my fault?" Rachel scoffed, pounding her fist a couple times on her dashboard just to be sure her car really was done for.

"Yeah, you don't take care of your piece of junk car and now we're stuck out here in the mountains! We don't even know where we're going." Rio leaned in the car from the outside, rustling through her little duffle bag she brought with her from the clinic. "Unfortunately, you didn't think to grab any of my tools so I can't try to fix it either."

"Like you know how to fix a car anyways," Rachel sighed, hopping out of the driver's seat, "It looks like we're going to have to walk from here." She placed her hand up to her forehead, scanning the vast valley before them, "I don't think the town should be too far from here."

"Oh heeeeelllll nope. I'm not going to walk there."

"It's not like you have a choice right now. C'mon, grab your crap and let's go." Rachel opened the trunk of her car and pulled out her suitcase, motioning for her sister to do the same afterwards.

"Fine, whateva. I'll die, but that's okay I guess." Rio sarcastically grumbled, causing Rachel to laugh. Even in the most desperate situations, it always seemed like Rio could make light of anything. _Well, I guess for the past few years she hasn't been totally like that,_ Rachel thought, leading her sister down a steep, gravel paved road. _We haven't talked as much as we used to. Once I found out she was using, I cut off all connections. Not at first, but when she refused to get help I was pretty much forced to. I couldn't risk my job over some stupid drama with my sister…if they had found out she was keeping drugs in my apartment I would have been in deep shit._

It was a cool spring afternoon, not quite chilly but the breeze made you glad you brought a jacket. Rio was never a fan of spring because her allergies made it near impossible to enjoy any part of it, although she tried to appreciate the beautifulness of all the blooming flowers. The coolness of the season was the only part she enjoyed, but it never stayed cool for very long.

She was more of a fall or winter kind of gal. When the weather would start to get really, really, cold and the sky turned a cloudy grey color. Mornings where she could wake up and the outside was surrounded by a light mist were always here favorite, not to mention all of the pretty fall colors.

"Look, there's the bridge that leads into town." Rachel huffed, wiping at the cool sweat off of her neck, but her sister remained silent, trudging down the hillside with her suitcase and duffle bag. It wasn't but five minutes later when they saw and elderly gentleman stumble out of a wooded area and collapse on the ground.

"Oh my God!" Rio gasped, immediately dropping her bags and sprinting the rest of the way down. Rachel didn't notice the man at first, confused as to why her sister took off running the way she did. It was always her sister who noticed everything first. She was a very observant little girl growing up, and their family always used to joke that she'd become a detective someday…_Well, they were half right._ Rachel sighed, stacking her sister's small bag on top of her suitcase and pulling it down with the rest of their things.

"Quick, he needs water!" Rio snatched her duffle-bag off of her suitcase and rummaged through it looking for her water bottle from lunch. "Ah, here…" She cradled the old man's head in her lap as she poured some water in his mouth. He sat up groggily,

"Ah…What happened to me?" He mumbled, removing his hat from his head and placing his hand to his forehead.

"You fainted from heat exhaustion," Rachel sighed, "Are you okay?"

"I think I'm going to be fine for now…Well…now, I don't mean to be rude, but I've never seen you two around these parts." He chuckled a bit as Rio helped him stand back up, "You wouldn't happen to be Rachel and Rio now, would ya?" The sisters glanced at each other in confusion,

"You know our names?" Rio frowned, zipping her bags back up and getting resituated.

"Ah, yes, your mother told me all about you two…" The man smirked,

"What did she say?" Rachel asked, almost afraid to hear whatever the answer was.

"She said she was sending me two hard workers to put to use around here on the farm." The old man placed on of his hands on his hips and stuck out the other, "My name's Dunhill, I've been a family friend for years. I knew your mother when she was just a wee little gal running around on her parent's land."

"Ah, I think I remember seeing some pictures of you around th-"

"F-farm? Rachel, did he just say farm? Don't tell me mother sent us out here to work on a _farm_." Rio groaned, interrupting her sister from responding to Dunhill. "I _just_ got out of the clinic. I can't _farm._ How are _you_ going to farm? You can't even fix a _car!_" She continued to go on a tangent, shifting in her spot nervously,

"Oh, so this was a surprise for you two then…" Dunhill murmured, "Anyways, I suppose we should get you two back to town and situated in your new home…"

"That would be lovely, thank you." Rachel sighed, shaking her head at her idiotic sister. _This was a horrible plan from the start. I told mother that we shouldn't spring this up on her like that. Especially after everything that's just happened, but I guess we had no choice. Rio wouldn't have been able to return to our mother's home…and I just got kicked out of my apartment. This is a disaster waiting to happen, but at least we have a roof over our head and maybe even food on our plates. All from hard work, but I don't doubt that it can't be done…_

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><p>"Welcome to Echo Village!" Dunhill waved his hands dramatically before him as the three of them crossed over the bridge into town. Rio sat her bag down, panting and scanning the area that laid before here. There wasn't that much to see, and to be quite honest, it wasn't something to be that proud of. <em><strong>What's so great about this place? There's like five houses at most…And a few of them don't even look occupied, <strong>_Rio sighed, biting her tongue to prevent herself from saying anything she was thinking.

"It sure has changed since the last time we visited," Rachel noted, taking in the scenery.

"We've been here before?" Rio asked her sister quietly, to which Rachel gave her an odd expression.

"Do you not remember? We used to come here all the time in the summer…" Rio laughed awkwardly in response,

"Oh…yeah…we did…" _**Damn…I can't remember anything about coming here at all. Nothing is coming to mind. Rachel said everything's changed…but even so, shouldn't I still remember bits and pieces of this place? I don't remember anything…**_

"Well, let's get you two settled in your new home!" Dunhill smiled, walking over to a path that led to a wide open space.

The house was well kept and very nice looking on the inside and out. The sisters quickly unpacked their things into their respective places in the house. It seemed as if someone had added on two additions to the house, making two bedrooms for the sisters to sleep separately. They even had a fully furnished kitchen, which made things even easier than they expected.

"This is so nice, thank you so much, Dunhill." Rachel grinned happily looking around the room after settling in. "I can't wait to get everything started here."

"No problem! It's gotten a bit late now, though. I'll come back tomorrow to teach you the basics of farming and then we can go meet the rest of the villagers." Dunhill nodded goodnight and quickly left. Rio collapsed into one of the dining room table's chair,

"Hey, do you really think we can pull this off?" She asked her sister quietly, rubbing her temples. Rachel was silent for a long time before responding,

"I think we can pull of anything we set our minds to," She pulled out a chair across from Rio and sat down, "It's not like we really have any other choice."

The two of them sat in silence for a long time before they both said goodnight and went to their respective rooms. Rio laid down on her new bed, staring up at the ceiling unable to sleep. She never got much sleep anymore, not since she got really bad. It never made any sense to her, why her father left all of them like that. Why he didn't say goodbye. Why he didn't get help. That why, she thought, her family really freaked out about that little phase she had for the past few years. Maybe she shouldn't consider it a phase, since it was more like a problem. A really, really awful problem that severed all ties she had left with her mother, and some with her sister. _**I just really don't understand her reasoning behind sending us out here like this. I should be better now…they signed off on the forms. Something happened with Rachel in those six months I was gone, I just know it. She won't talk to be about it, though. I don't know if she ever will. Well, whatever the reasoning mother has behind this, I'm going to try and believe in it. For now, that is. If things get too stupid out here…or things get bad again…we're leaving. The second there's a problem I'm out. **_Rio closed her eyes and rolled over on her side. _**I guess I should go to bed. We have a big day tomorrow, after all.**_

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><p><em>"<em>I'm the same as I was when I was six year old, and oh my God I feel so damn old. I don't really feel anything."

-Modest Mouse/Never Ending Math Equation


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